The present invention relates to a new and distinct Cercis plant, botanically known as Cercis canadensis, commercially referred to as Eastern Redbud and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘JN16’.
The new Cercis plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Belvidere, Tenn. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new Cercis plants with purple-colored leaves that retain their color throughout the summer.
The new Cercis plant originated from a cross-pollination in May, 2012 in Belvidere, Tenn. of Cercis canadensis ‘Ruby Falls’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,097, as the female, or seed, parent with Cercis canadensis ‘JN2’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 21,451, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Cercis plant was discovered and selected by the Inventors as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled nursery environment in Belvidere, Tenn. in May, 2013.
Asexual reproduction of the new Cercis plant by chip budding onto proprietary seedling Cercis rootstock in a controlled environment in Belvidere, Tenn. since August, 2013 has shown that the unique features of this new Cercis plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.